The movement of the stock indexes on the capital markets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) shows a strong correlation to the international markets and that they are often regarded as a group by investors.

A total of four of the eight indexes in the region have declined by more than 40% since the beginning of the year, three indexes have lost more than 30% and one index, that of the Russian market, has slipped by only 14%, which is reasonable against the backdrop of the rising oil prices.

The mаin indexes in Bulgaria and Romania have recorded similar declines.

Bulgaria's SOFIX lost 42.25% by the end of last week, while Romania's ВЕТ shed 41.6% over the same period, a survey conducted by Karoll investment intermediary shows.

The SOFIX is the third biggest decliner among the indexes following those of Ukraine (-46.38%) and Montenegro (-44.83%).

Morgan Stanley's MSCI EE index for Central and Eastern European markets has declined by 17.14% in 2008.

CountryIndexFor the weekChange in 2008BulgariaSOFIX-6,54%-42,25%RomaniaВЕТ-5,61%-41,63%CroatiaCROBEX-2,65%-31,50%MacedoniaMBI-100,47%-31,68%MontenegroNEX200,99%-44,83%RussiaMICEX0,07-14,07%SerbiaBELEX15-3,58%-34,41%TurkeyISE1008,40%-31,67%UkrainePFTS-8,92-46,38%Eastern EuropeMSCI EE-0,69-17,14%

CountryIndexP/ERomaniaBET10,67SerbiaBelex 1516,3RussiaMICEX11,8CroatiaCROBEX13,31TurkeyISE 1009,32BulgariaSOFIX14,56